With its mixture of famous battles and storied commanders, warfare in 4th century B.C. Greece has long held a fascination for military enthusiasts and the general public alike. Histories, biographies, and popular culture have turned the exploits of noted generals like Xenophon and Iphicrates of Athens, Epaminondas of Thebes, and the father-son team of Philip II and Alexander the Great of Macedonia into the stuff of legend. Drawing from ancient accounts along with suitable analogs, this detailed work offers meticulous reconstructions of 187 of the 4th century's most significant land engagements, considering tactical patterns, evolving trends, and the lasting impact of the era's most influential military minds. By separating myth from reality, these recreations provide incredible insight into past ways of war that continue to influence the course of combat today.

With its mixture of famous battles and storied commanders, warfare in 4th century B.C. Greece has long held a fascination for military enthusiasts and the general public alike. Histories, biographies, and popular culture have turned the exploits of noted generals like Xenophon and Iphicrates of Athens, Epaminondas of Thebes, and the father-son team of Philip II and Alexander the Great of Macedonia into the stuff of legend. Drawing from ancient accounts along with suitable analogs, this detailed work offers meticulous reconstructions of 187 of the 4th century's most significant land engagements, considering tactical patterns, evolving trends, and the lasting impact of the era's most influential military minds. By separating myth from reality, these recreations provide incredible insight into past ways of war that continue to influence the course of combat today.

"Relying heavily on primary sources such as Herodotus, Thucydides and Plutarch, this volume provides the first-ever tactical level survey of all Greek land engagements which occurred during the 5th century BC, a seminal period in the history of western warfare"--Provided by publisher.

The Hellenistic Period (323-31 BCE) saw the Grecian phalanx--long dominant in Mediterranean warfare--challenged by legionary formations from the rising city-state of Rome. The Roman way of war would come to eclipse phalanx-based combat by the 160s yet this was not evident at the time. Rome suffered numerous defeats against the phalanxes of Pyrrhus and Hannibal, its overseas campaign against the brilliant Spartan mercenary Xanthippus met disaster, and several Roman victories over Hellenistic foes were not decisive. The story of combat in this pivotal era is not well documented. This book for the first time provides detailed tactical analyses for all 130 significant land engagements of Hellenistic armies 300-167 BCE.

In the 5th century B.C., Greece was a patchwork country of small, independent city-states whose tendency to fight each other was offset only by strong ties to common cultural elements such as language and a unique style of warfare. While surviving myths emphasize heroics and honor, the reality of ancient Greek warfare was that of regular men dealing with everyday problems. Relying heavily on primary sources such as Herodotus, Thucydides and Plutarch, this volume provides the first-ever tactical level survey of all 173 Greek land engagements which occurred during the 5th century B.C., a seminal period in the history of western warfare. Using carefully researched logical probabilities to extend surviving records, the author places each battle within its historical context and analyzes it with a view to documenting significant overall patterns of action. The result is not only a detailed study of each battle complete with maps and battlefield diagrams, but also an overview of general trends in 5th century Greek warfare.

It has been 2500 years since the Greek heavy infantry known as hoplites dominated the battlefield. Yet they still capture the imagination today, through a wave of successful action films, novels and documentaries. The mass-media popularity of these famed warriors has, however, helped spawn a number of misconceptions about them. Drawing on classical literature, archaeology and the latest data from physical, behavioral and medical science, this study of hoplite equipment, tactics and command seeks to separate modern myths from observable facts. The authors resolve some persistent controversies and advance new theories about the nature of ancient Greek warfare.

The Greek hoplite and the phalanx formation in which he fought have been the subject of considerable academic debate over the past century. Dr Richard Taylor provides an overview of the current state of play in the hoplite debate in all its aspects, from fighting techniques to the social and economic background of the ‘hoplite revolution’, in a form that is accessible for the general reader and military history enthusiast. But the book goes further: offering a new perspective on the hoplite phalanx by putting it in the context of other military developments in the Mediterranean world in the middle of the first millennium BC. He argues that the Greek phalanx was different in degree but not in kind from other contemporary heavy infantry formations and that the hoplite debate, with its insistence on the unique nature of the hoplite phalanx, has obscured the similarities with other equivalent formations. The result is a fresh take on a perennially popular subject.